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Pirates Prospects is reporting that the Pirates have agreed to terms with their 10th round pick, Taylor Lewis.

Lewis, a CF from the University of Maine, was rated as the 5th best prospect by Baseball America in Upper New England. In college he was more of a line drive hitter and has the potential to develop some power down the road. I am assuming he will sent to State College shortly.

Also, with the announcement of the State College Spikes’ opening roster, we can also confirm the Pirates have inked 24th round pick Brian Sharp, 29th round pick Kirk Singer, 30th round pick Matthew Benedict, and 31st round pick Derek Trent.

Sharp and Singer are both college shortstops who should spit playing time with each other up the middle. Benedict is a college senior RHP, and Trent is a catcher, who also was a college senior.

These signings, along with the signing of 6th rounder Dan Gamache yesterday put the Pirates total at 6 signees from the 2011 draft, including 2 top 10 picks.

McKenry, 26, was acquired by the Red Sox from the Rockies this spring and is currently hitting .280/.370/.430 in 28 games with AAA-Pawtucket. He was the Rockies’ 7th round pick in 2006 and has a career .811 OPS over 6 seasons in the Minors.

Based on his numbers, he seems to have decent pop in his bat, however his strength seems to be his defense. He has thrown out 36% of attempted base stealers in his career. Simply put, though, he will be an upgrade over Dusty Brown and Wyatt Toregas.

No word yet on what the Pirates have given up for McKenry, but I can not imagine it will be anything significant. Also, a corresponding move will have to be made here to create room for McKenry on both the 25-man and 40-man roster.

UPDATE – 11:53 PM:

It is now confirmed. The Pirates have, indeed, acquired McKenry. The Red Sox will receiver either a player to be named later or cash. Wyatt Toregas has been designated for assignment to make room for McKenry on both the 25-man and 40-man rosters.

Toregas’ stint with the club lasted all of 4 days. He played in 2 games and went 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

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Baseball America is reporting that the Pittsburgh Pirates have signed their 6th round draft pick, Dan Gamache. Gamache will receive a signing bonus of $125,000 and is the first player the Pirates have signed out of this year’s draft.

Gamache is known primarily as a defensive 3B. His numbers this season for Auburn were not all that impressive after his 2010 season was shortened due to surgery on his hand.

Most likely, Gamache will report to State College as they open up later this week.

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I have been holding off on writing this for a while because I really did not think the Pirates needed a player like Alex Presley. He is a left handed hitter, who can essentially play every outfield position. He basically is Xavier Paul.

However, after seeing the Pirates continuing to trot out Matt Diaz and Garrett Jones, I now believe it is time to give Presley a shot (or on Twitter, #FreeAlexPresley).

Alex Presley went 1 for 4 today for the Indianapolis Indians and is currently hitting .342 with a .391 OBP and a .523 SLG in 63 games for the Tribe. He has 8 homers and has stolen 14 bases in 16 attempts. At 26 years old, Presley really seems to be entering his prime.

Matt Diaz, who was signed to platoon with Jones against LHP this season is not getting the job done right now. Against LHP, Diaz is hitting .226/.268/.245 in 53 AB. Jones, who started off the season hitting, has since fallen off a cliff and has seen his line drop to .243/.347/.419. He belongs on a ML team, just not as an every day player.

I don’t think the Pirates should move Diaz or Jones to make room for Presley. 1st off, I am still holding off some hope that Diaz can turn things around and start doing what his track record has shown: that he is at least competent against LHP. 2nd, even with the awful splits, without Diaz, the Pirates bench would become very, very left-handed, which in certain pinch-hitting situations can be very bad.

The one player who should be moved to make room for Presley is infielder Pedro Ciriaco. Having him on the roster is literally pointless. He’s played 4 games in 3 weeks and has picked up a bat in just 3 of those games. With Wood and Harrison both on the roster, there is no need for Ciriaco.

I don’t have much hope that Presley will be an effective everyday Major Leaguer, but at this point we should at least figure that out. If not, Presley does hold value as being a good 4th outfielder who can play anywhere.

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Kevin Correia retired the first 14 batters he faced in this one. But in the 7th inning, things got a little weird.

With 1 out and runners on the corners, Jason Bay hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield. However, the runner on 1st had touched 2nd, gone past it, and never retouched it before going back to 1st base. He was called out on the appeal at 2nd. This seemed to be the turning point. They took the run off the scoreboard and it was still a 0-0 game. Rules state that if a player is out on a force out, and it is the 3rd out, no preceding runner can score. Apparently, that didn’t count as a force out, so the umpires rewarded the Mets the run.

Things then looked to be ok starting off the bottom of the 7th when Lyle Overbay led off by hitting a fly ball to the center field fence in which replay really couldn’t show if it was trapped by Mets’ CF Angel Pagan or not. The umpires ruled Overbay out due to a catch. That led to Clint Hurdle getting tossed simultaneously by two umpires (you know he must have said a no-no word).

In the 8th inning, all hell broke loose as the Mets added 4 more runs and would even add 2 more in the 9th.

Matt Diaz was ejected for arguing with the umpire from the dugout in the 9th inning while Andrew McCutchen was at the plate. This was just an ugly one.

McCutchen was basically the only bright spot as he did extend his hitting streak to 11 games with a 2 for 3 performance.

The Bucs will go for the split tomorrow against the Mets at 7:05. Paul Maholm will be on the hill hoping for some more run support